Pink Floyd’s Discography: An Overview (The Band Falls Apart) #NMW

Do I need to explain who Pink Floyd is? If someone out there genuinely doesn’t know who Pink Floyd is, then I’m going to become depressed.

Pink Floyd is a psychedelic, progressive rock band formed in 1965 by guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett, bassist and vocalist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist and vocalist Richard Wright. The band had a successful debut album, but the band is known for their incredible run of albums between 1973 and 1979, which have become some of the most successful albums of all time.

The band was added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame In 1996 and has sold over a quarter of a billion albums worldwide over the course of their career. They have become one of the most influential bands of all time.

My history with the band

Before talking about the albums, I’m going to talk about my history with the band. I think it’s important to understand my background with the group so the reader (you) can understand where I’m coming from in a bit more detail when I talk about them. If you just want to read what I have to say about the albums, then you can skip this section. For everyone else, here’s my history.

I’ve been listening to Pink Floyd for as long as I can remember. My dad was a huge fan of the band for a long time, and thereby got me to listen to the band. However, I got hooked on the band four or five years ago. I have distinct memories of listening to The Dark Side of the Moon after hockey practice/games. The band has quickly become one of my favorite bands of all time since then.

Behind the Scenes

I’m going to be taking quick looks behind the scenes of the band and let you in on all of the behind the scenes drama. This time in the band’s history was turbulent to say the least. It’s important to understand the context of the album when listening to it. I promise that they’ll be quick.

The Final Cut was the high of Roger’s control in the band. At the start, things were going well between the remaining members of the band. However, as time went on, Roger and Dave started to resent each other. When The Final Cut was released, the public learned that Richard Wright was no longer in the band because he was not credited on the album. The band (and by the band, I mean Roger Waters) has released the movie adaptation of The Wall earlier in the year.

The Final Cut is the twelfth studio album from Pink Floyd. The album was released on March 21st, 1982, in the United Kingdom and on April 2nd, 1982, in the United States by Harvest and Columbia Records. The album has 12 tracks and a runtime of 46 minutes. It was the last album to feature bassist/vocalist and founding member Roger Waters, and the first without keyboardist Richard Wright (depending on how you feel about The Wall anyway). The album is an anti-war concept album.

David Gilmour – Lead and rhythm guitars, co-lead vocals on "Not Now John", additional backing vocals

Nick Mason – Drums, tape effects

Additional musicians

Michael Kamen – Piano, harmonium

Andy Bown – Piano, Hammond organ

Ray Cooper – Percussion

Andy Newmark – Drums on "Two Suns in the Sunset"

Raphael Ravenscroft – Tenor saxophone

Doreen Chanter - Backing vocals on "Not Now John"

Irene Chanter - Backing vocals on "Not Now John"

National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted and arranged by Michael Kamen

My Opinion:

Let’s start with the poll. You know how it works by now. I post a poll in advance and let you guys vote on you favorite album in the overview. The Final Cut was tied for second place with another album we’ll talk about shortly for second place. This album got 12.8% of the votes in the poll, which you can check out by clicking here. So let’s take a look at The Final Cut.

The Final Cut is perhaps the most overlooked album within the band’s discography. A lot of people disregard the albums the band did after The Wall. Even I overlooked this album for the longest time. But after listening to this album again after many years, I have to admit that I really like this album, despite its shortcomings.

The music in the album is essentially a Roger Waters solo album. All of the songs were written by Roger and all of the vocals were sung by Roger with the exception of the second to last song on the album, “Not Now John,” which has David Gilmour as a co-vocalist. The music is very dynamic and is very militaristic with very sharp drum hits all throughout the album. Which fits with the concept of the album.

The concept of the album is surrounded with British politics and Roger’s relationship with his father. Like The Wall, I haven’t done a Concepts in Rock on this album, so I can’t link to a more detailed analysis of the concept. The record deserves that treatment, and I’m sure I’ll get to it someday. But for now, here’s a very basic understanding of the concept.

To understand the concept, we have to talk about Roger’s father. He was a soldier during the Second World War and died in Italy. This wasn’t the first time we heard reference to Roger’s father. In The Wall, the main character’s father, Pink, also died during World War II. This lack of a father figure messed Roger up a lot. When he heard that Margret Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister at the time, was going to war against Argentina in what became known as the Falklands War, this set Roger off and he made this album.

The Falklands War is a central point of the album. I can’t describe the entire war, why it started, etc. in this blog because I would be here all day and I haven’t even stated on the other albums yet. But if you want to learn more about that war and potentially deepen your understanding of the album, I recommend you watch this video by OverSimplified on YouTube. It does a good job of describing the war and the events surrounding it in a short amount of time.

There are some other references to American and Russian history and their experience during the final parts of the Cold War. I would assume most of the people know about that. If you don’t, OverSimplified also has a two part video on The Cold War that can help you u deserts and those references. So watch that after the Falklands War video if you’re interested.

The album describes something called “The Post-War Dream,” which is the idea that once the war is over, we’ll have peace and nobody will die. So while people will die during the war, it’s all for the greater good and nobody will die afterwards. The point of the album is that even those who don’t die, they will still be fucked up beyond belief, and there will still be war after the war you’re currently in is over. In other words, The Post-War Dream is a lie.

The combination of Roger’s non-relationship with his father and The Falklands War caused Roger to create an anti-war concept album. The album, in a nutshell, is trying to say that we (more specifically the governments of the world) can’t control the world by going to war all of the time. If we do that, we won’t accomplish anything and we’ll probably all die.

So while I like the album, I do have some complaints. The first is that Roger wrote the entire album. I don’t have a problem with Roger as a songwriter or as a vocalist, but I do wish we had more input from the rest of the band. It makes the album feel more like a Roger Waters solo album more than a Pink Floyd album. In the same vain, I wish Richard Wright was still in the band.

The other complaint I have is the production. Roger is clicky on this album, especially on the softer parts of the album (which is a lot of the album). Unlike a lot of the other albums, there’s not a whole lot of stuff to mask the clicks. I get it’s tape and we can’t just edit the clicks out like we can on a DAW, but could you not get a different take? It’s not like Roger can’t sing. This one really hurts my enjoyment of the album because it’s quite prominent. It could have been a top-tier album in my opinion if there weren’t any clicks.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Roger’s solo albums or the Pink Floyd albums that Roger mostly wrote (Animals and The Wall), then this is an album that you should check out. If you’re a fan of the band as a whole, then this is an album that you should have listened to at least once. A lot of fans don’t go beyond The Wall or before The Dark Side the Moon, and I think you’re doing yourself a real disservice as a fan if you do that. And if you’re looking to listen to the material after The Wall, The Final Cut is a great place to start. It will be very similar to the other records you already like.

Behind the Scenes

Between the release of The Final Cut and the band’s next album, the tension between Roger Waters and the rest of the band boiled over. This resulted in Roger Waters leaving the band in 1985. That would have been the end of it, but Roger Waters owned the Pink Floyd name, and tried to sue the band for using the name. He essentially wanted to dissolve Pink Floyd after he left. In other words, Roger – the bass player – thought he was the band. Obviously he lost because we wouldn’t be here if he won, and he has since regretted suing them.

So after all of the drama and 5 years between albums and losing another band member, let’s see what they came up with.

A Momentary Lapse in Reason is the thirteenth studio album from Pink Floyd. It was released on September 7th, 1987, by EMI and Columbia Records. The album has 11 tracks and a runtime of 51 minutes. It was the first album released without Roger Waters. It’s not a concept album, just a collection of songs.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is tied The Final Cut in the poll. Both albums got 12.8% of the votes in the poll, which you can check out by clicking here. So what did this album do to match The Final Cut?

A Momentary Lapse in Reason was the first album the band did without Roger Waters. Roger has written just about everything in the band’s last three albums (Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut), so this was David and Nick’s chance to shine through and flex their writing muscles after a decade of not writing much of anything for the band.

The album is not a concept album. It’s the first non-concept album after the release of The Dark Side of the Moon, and also doesn’t have any of Roger’s lyrical talent (because he wasn’t in the band anymore). Because of this, a lot of what I personally like about Pink Floyd was gone. I love the concept and the lyrics on albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Those were two of the band’s greatest strengths in my opinion and in the opinion of other fans and critics.

That being said, taking away the concept allowed the band (not just Roger, but the whole band) to focus on writing songs. Because of this, the album feels more like a traditional Pink Floyd album, rather than a Roger Waters solo album. It’s more in line with albums like Meddle and The Dark Side of the Moon, though David’s creative leadership on the album gives this era of Pink Floyd it’s own identity.

That’s another thing worth mentioning with this album. From this album onward, David Gilmour would become the new creative leader of the band, and you can hear the sound of the band change quite drastically with that change. You can hear a lot of David’s own influences that you would hear on a Gilmour solo album. The difference between this and Roger’s era was that David’s influences were mixed with the Pink Floyd identity, whereas Roger turned Pink Floyd into his own solo project.

For this album, the band needed to create a solid batch of tunes to compensate for the lack of concept and the inevitable downfall in lyrical quality. They did a good job, but are only 75% of the way there. As an album, it’s just not quite there yet, though there are some excellent songs on the album.

There are some good songs on this album. Side One of this album is actually really good in my opinion. Learning to Fly was the big hit from this record, and it’s one of the better songs from the album.

Side Two falters somewhat, with the exception of the closing track, Sorrow, which is one of the band’s best songs in my opinion. This is one of the songs every Pink Floyd fan should know, even if you’re a firm believer in the Roger Waters era of the band (like I am). I would say that it’s the best song on the album, though Learning to Fly was a bigger radio hit.

As for the production of the album, it’s pretty good. I don’t have much to say about it. The only thing I dislike is the occasional use of electronic drums. I prefer the sound of acoustic drums. But I don’t think very many people will notice the difference between them when casually listening. Also, David isn’t clicky this album. Hooray!

This is the first step the band would take into their final era as a band, The David Gilmour Era. Most people remember this era from the band’s next album, which we’ll talk about in a second. I would suggest that if you haven’t heard any of the David Gilmour Era material, that you start with the album that some out after this one. But if you have already listened to that album and know you like it, then you should give this one a listen.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was the first step into a new era of the band. But the next album would become its defining moment. So let’s take a look at the next album in the David Gilmour Era of the band, titled The Division Bell.

Behind the Scenes

Between A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, the band went on tour. A Momentary Lapse of Reason brought Richard Wright on as a session musician, and some time before then and the release of the album, Rick was brought on as a full time band member again. Why they didn’t do this on A Momentary Lapse of Reason is beyond me, but I think it has to die to legal reasons. So the band didn’t fall apart this time. They did the opposite this time. Nice.

The Division Bell is the fourteenth album from Pink Floyd. The album has March 28th, 1994, by EMI and Columbia Records. The album has 11 tracks and a runtime of 66 minutes. The album brought back Richard Wright as a full member of the band. The record turned 25 years old this year.

Richard Wright – Keyboards, piano, lead vocals ("Wearing the Inside Out") and backing vocals ("What Do You Want from Me")

Additional Musicians:

Jon Carin – Programming, piano, additional keyboards

Guy Pratt – Bass guitar

Gary Wallis – Percussion

Tim Renwick – Guitars

Dick Parry – Tenor saxophone

Bob Ezrin – Keyboards, percussion

Sam Brown – Backing vocals

Durga McBroom – Backing vocals

Carol Kenyon – Backing vocals

Jackie Sheridan – Backing vocals

Rebecca Leigh-White – Backing vocals

Stephen Hawking – Vocal samples on "Keep Talking"

My Opinion:

The Division Bell was by far the most popular album in the poll. This record got 69.2% of the votes in the poll, which you can check out by clicking here. The record is the most pillar of this era, but is it the best? Let’s take a listen and find out!

The Division Bell is a polarizing album among fans. When the album came out, the record received negative to mixed reviews. But over time, this album has become a favorite of fans and some critics, as well as myself. Of the albums the band released after The Wall, The Division Bell is my favorite, though closely followed by The Final Cut.

One thing the record does to improve upon A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the introduction of a concept. This is the first concept album David made for Pink Floyd following Roger’s departure. Like the other albums I’ve talked about today, I haven’t done a Concepts in Rock on this album. I haven’t even gotten to The Wall yet, and that will be a massive project in and of itself. So be patient. It will come someday… maybe… eventually.

The concept of the album, in a nutshell, is vaguely about communication and how it can solve a lot of problems. A smaller theme throughout the album is the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which happened 2 years after the release of A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The songs on the album all more or less relate to one of those two themes/ideas.

The production on the album is pretty good. Like A Momentary Lapse of Reason, there’s not a whole lot to say about it. One thing that stands out about the production on this album is the use of delay and reverb on David’s vocals. That alongside his calm demeanor gives his voice a particularly warm feeling. I’ve seen people say that the calm tone in his voice makes it sound like he doesn’t care, but I disagree. It’s a calmer album, not a hard rock album. The delivery is in line with that.

The songs on this album are all great throughout, though some are better than others. One thing in common throughout the album is the vocals, of lack there of. A lot of the songs have large instrumental passages. It’s more in line with the classic sounding Pink Floyd. Once Roger started to take creative control, those instrumental passages got less and less frequent. This album brought them back to full force. I like that.

The big hit from this album was Keep Talking. Fun fact, the song has vocal samples from Stephen Hawking. Pretty cool, right? But there are plenty more great songs on the album. Some of my favorites are What Do You Want From Me, Poles Apart, Take It Back, Coming Back to Life, Lost for Words, and High Hopes.

The middle of the album is the weakest part in my opinion (as you can probably guess from where my favorite songs are), but nothing in there is bad or unlistenable. It’s worth pointing out that the record is over an hour long, which was their longest album up until that point (not including The Wall). Had they cut out some of the stuff in the middle and shorten Cluster One (or remove it entirely), the record would have been much leaner and better by extension. That’s my only real complaint about the album.

If you’ve hesitated on the later Pink Floyd albums, then you’re missing out. And if you want to listen to any of those albums, this is the album to start with. It would be appropriate to listen to the album now because the record turned 25 years old this year.

The record is a wonderful final send off to Pink Floyd’s discography… except it’s not. In 3014 – 20 years after the release of The Decision Bell – the 15th and final album was released, titled The Endless River.

Behind the Scenes

Between The Division Bell and The Endless River, a lot of things happened. The band went silent after touring The Devision Bell. In 2005, the band finally reunited for one show at Live 8. It was the classic line up one last time, which, while they never reformed the band, at least tells me that they were able to put aside their differences for the sake of the band.

After that show, everything started going downhill. Original vocalists/guitarist Syd Barrett died on July 7th, 2006, at 60 years old due to pancreatic cancer. Two years later, Richard Wright died from an undisclosed form of cancer on September 15th, 2008. The band and the world mourned both losses.

Rest In Peace

Later in 2013, Storm Thorgerson died. For those who don’t know, Storm was a friend of the band and the designer of the Pink Floyd album covers like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Also, his name is actually Storm Thorgerson. He didn’t change his name into that, that’s just his name. It’s also the coolest name in the history of ever.

The band members would occasionally make small performances for charity events, either as a solo act or under the Pink Floyd name.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, David Gilmour coupled together the leftover songs from The Division Bell recordings and released what would be called, The Endless River.

The Endless River is the fifteenth album from Pink Floyd. The album was released on November 7th, 2014, by Parlophone and Columbia Records. The album has 18 songs and a runtime of 53 minutes. It was the only album released by the band after Richard Wright’s death in 2008.

The Endless River was the least popular album in the poll. It revived 5.1% of the votes in the poll, which you can check out by clicking here. So, what happened?

The Endless River is an almost entirely instrumental album made up of recordings from The Division Bell writing sessions (though much of it was re-recorded. In fact, the only songs with lyrics is Louder than Words, Talkin’ Hawkin’ (which reuses the sample from Keep Talking from The Division Bell). This would immediately explain why it had a low poll turnout, because people don’t usually like instrumental music. I do, but that didn’t exactly make my experience as good as other albums.

The Endless River is a fine album if you’re a fan of ambient, done-like music. I used this album as background music while doing some other work. But that doesn’t make it a good album. In fact, I would say reducing an album to, “its good for background noise,” is a negative thing. That sounds like something you would say about a bad album.

I don’t think it is a bad album per se, but it’s not the final send off to Pink Floyd I think people would want it to be. I look at this album like Coda from LED Zeppelin. For those who don’t know, after John Bonham died, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin put together the unreleased songs into an album called Coda. It was meant as a final send of to John and Led Zeppelin as a whole.

I see The Endless River as an attempt to do for Pink Floyd what Coda did for Led Zeppelin. Richard has died roughly 5 years before, Syd died two years before him, and Storm had died the year before the album was released. And had the album came out a year or two after Richard’s death, and had they made it crystal clear that this was for him and that the band would dissolve afterward, I think the result would have been less mixed than it was.

What’s strange is that ambient music was never what Pink Floyd was. It was psychedelic, progressive, and above all, it was rock and roll. As a result, it doesn’t seem like a Pink Floyd album in a lot of ways. But if you’re a fan of instrumental, ambient type music, then you might like this album. I don’t see many fans returning to this album often at all, if they even remember that it happened. Though it does have one of the best album covers in my opinion.

Final Thoughts

Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands of all time. I hope my writing has done them some justice. I’m struggling to find a way to end this. I’ve been writing this series for a month now, and it’s been my life for the past month. I’m glad I can finally move onto other projects and maybe start sleeping now.

As for Pink Floyd, that would be it. The band would officially disband in 2015. But their legacy lives on forever.

Cheers for reading and have a nice day!

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Comments (12)

Dude, I read all your Pink Floyd discography-blogs so far and you can consider me a huge PF fan. I even have the cover of DSOTM tattooed on me. Like yourself I started listening to them in my childhood. I am quite profound on the trivia and even researched background... but dude, you're a fucking nerd! And I mean that in the best definition of the term. Awesome. Take my props, sir! Never more earned!

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